Fabrication of polymer lenses and microlens array for lab-on-a-chip devices

Microlenses and microlens arrays are assuming an increasingly important role in optical devices and communication systems. In response to their extended use in different fields of technology, a great emphasis is being placed on research into simple manufacturing approaches for these micro-optical components as well as on the characterization of their performance. This paper provides an overview of the recent emerging technologies for the fabrication of polymer microlenses by electrical, mechanical, chemical, and pyro-electrical methods. Attention is mainly focused on polymer molding and self-assembling for microlens arrays, while ink-jet printing is proposed for on-demand printing of lenses with high resolution. Among all the emerging techniques proposed, the pyro-electrodynamic approach has recently achieved great interest as an easy multiscale approach for the fabrication of polymer microlens arrays through a flexible process driven by electrohydrodynamic pressure. As each processing method has distinct advantages and limitations, the most significant characteristic parameters and the measurements of these parameters are discussed for each method.